Water: Malian musician Inna Modja

The Cultural Frontline

This week, The Cultural Frontline is looking at a precious and vital resource: water. Chi Chi Izundu is finding out how issues of water scarcity, water sanitation and climate change are inspiring artists and musicians.

The Malian musician Inna Modja tells Chi Chi Izundu about an epic project to combat drought: the Great Green Wall. Spanning eleven countries in Africa’s Sahel region, the Great Green Wall is an initiative to grow an incredible 8000 kilometre wall of trees. Inna Modja talks about the film she’s made about the project and how the musicians she met on her journey along the wall inspired her.

Indian musician and activist Ditty combines her work as a musician with a career as an urban ecologist. She explains how the women working to collect and preserve water in northern India inspired her collaboration with the band Faraway Friends and their new album, Rain is Coming.

Nigerian writer Ben Okri has collaborated with British artists Ackroyd & Harvey to create an installation made entirely out of grass and float it down a river in London. He talks about how the living work of art will make us think about climate change.

Guatemalan artist Maria Diaz discusses her art installation made of oversized rain-sticks. Nostalgic for the rain of her homeland, whilst living in California with the threat of drought, Maria Diaz created this immersive piece to raise awareness about the importance of the vital resource, water.

(Photo: Inna Modja. Credit: Marco Conti Sikic)